Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 22, 2018

We’ve also seen a substantial inflow of venture capital from all over the world.”. As BCG writes in its report: The good news for SoCal and any region with tech ambitions is that the Bay Area has in some ways been too successful. In fact, as is well-reported, the luster of Silicon Valley is fading.

Southern California 224

Southern California Dollar Shave Club SoCal Develop 224

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Ideas 275

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. just don’t lead with them!

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. For me the question on announcing funding is now whether to do it but when.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

She had emailed with a partner at a big VC fund and he had passed the request to a junior associate. You have to be sure that you’re actually qualified to raise VC, that you CAN get other meetings and you have to be very polite when you state your reasons why their request doesn’t work. The same thing happens to VCs.

Funding 217

Funding Newsletter Venture Capital Email 217

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

“From the invention of the semiconductor to the creation of the Internet, new engines of economic growth have emerged due to public investments that support research, commercialization, and strong supply chains,” the White House wrote. ” Climate resiliency . .

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Through his research he helped bring ARPANET to Philadelphia in 1973.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Go research it. Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line. They might be as hard as raising VC.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales 150

Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

Xconomy

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Biologists have been using artificially created DNA, produced through what’s known as chemical DNA synthesis, as a research tool for decades. Now, as demand for engineered DNA rises, a handful of startups are vying to become the go-to provider for researchers looking for improved versions of the DNA sequences.

San Diego 43

San Diego Research Writing Demand 43

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. Deal evaluations the Foundry way, which continues into a great discussion about VC decision-making processes. “So Is that when it became big?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

She did a bunch of research on it and finally found a small number of safe brands. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. But it’s not cutting VCs out.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. And as a result their competitors were able to raise a considerable VC round from well-known firms. I write on my blog how I think in my head.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

Specifically, I often point to the NSF or the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for high-tech startups. Government grants start as small a few thousand dollars, but can provide a million dollars or more in capital to new ventures. Another alternative is to find an inexpensive class on grant writing.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital. If you need VC, no better time than the present.

Startup 310

Startup Venture Capital Press Journal 310

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

You’re writing a freaking blog post! Can you please intro me to XYZ VC? I never get grumpy that people write. If you do randomly write me I have advice. Research & Development. I know it’s different as a VC than as a startup company providing a product or service. “But WAIT !!!

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. In data analysis you want to look for “primary&# research, which means the person who initially gathered the data. The bankers and consultants weren’t paid to do too much primary research. So, where is this all coming from, Mark?

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

You should be actively listening the whole time (actively listening as in listening, writing important things down and asking relevant questions as they talk about their problems). Pitching a VC – As I said in a previous post – the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Now I’m selling.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Custom 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Now, you’re handling payroll and doing writing as well. You may even discover that you enjoy writing more than crunching numbers. Piaw Na, who spent over six years at Google, writes on Quora that she recommends fresh grads to join a startup instead of big companies. Startups also usually have no playbook yet.

Startup 102

Startup Social Media Writing Google 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2010

Universities are brimming with new ideas from their students, their professors, and their own research, but need entrepreneurs from the real world to decide which ones are viable in the marketplace. Research and development. Start by contacting a professor in your area of interest or expertise. Legal advice.

Help 94

Help Startup Mentor Incubator 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - By company 22 it’s hard to remember what any of them did. Many other great companies are not. -

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. Even the VC who invested in your deal struggles to properly position why you’re going to be huge when they’re calling big tech companies or other VCs on your behalf.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. Their writing style, even for a mainstream publication, is they write with lots of testosterone. They write about the transmission, the brakes, and the suspension, and that creeps into all of their evaluations of cars.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2010

This week I was preparing for my weekly This Week in Venture Capital web show and was researching some of the deals that were announced for the week. I had expect a Q&A style session and as I asked the first question – BOOM – he went straight to screen sharing using his term sheet write-ups on VentureHacks.

Screening 266

Screening Screencast Web Yammer 266

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Peter Marx: I started in the technology industry by writing software for imaging microscopes--looking at things like cell populations using early CCD cameras and understanding cell morphology; working on video compression; working on networking stuff and software for early digital telephony like ISDN and on forward.

Los Angeles 203

Los Angeles Technology Startup Examples 203

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past. If they’re only 1 of 5 they might rather just take the write off. And recaps hurt founders so often people just avoid doing them.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

I asked him if he’d be willing to allow me to interview him for This Week in VC and we filmed it in the offices of Stack Overflow – his new company. Microsoft Office ended up beating its competitors because it was able to read and write to file formats other than its own. Communicating with the developers who write code.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

If you live somewhere where this is the case you’re better off discussing with your employer that you may from time-to-time work on private projects outside of work hours and you want their clearance in writing that this is OK. Research your market. Register a company. This is advice that I give people all the time.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. In no time after they had researched their market they were up with pilots with local TV stations in 3 key DMAs. It will be controversial – I know. Another example.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

Kind of like a law firm (or VC firm) with four partners but shortened to just two, people dropped off his second two words. I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. BUT … try doing proper restaurant research on a mobile device.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. But this isn’t likely to be a VC-backable business (which to be clear is totally ok). Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital. Market Size. Market Structure.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150